Hörnqvist, Maj-Lis

Luleå University of Technology, Department of Arts, Communication and Education, Education, Language, and Teaching.

1999 (Swedish)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)

Abstract [en]

The aim of this thesis is to understand young people’s experience of their own competence in schoolwork. The point of departure of the study has been a phenomenological perspective based on the lifeworld. A review of the research performed in the field of self-perceptions has been carried out. A total of nine classes in Form 8 of the Swedish compulsory school have participated in the study, which consists of two empirical parts. Part 1 is an interview survey. Part 2 consists of a letter survey. The empirical material was processed and analysed, initially each part on its own, and subsequently integrated in a combined presentation of results. The results present seven different thematic aspects of the experienced competence: a personal relationship, cognitive gain, controlling one’s actions, satisfaction with the product, acknowledgement, capacity, and being in phase. These themes are a means of capturing the meaning of the studied pupils’ experience of their competence in the schoolwork that they performed. The results are discussed on the basis of their significance for the pupils and their learning. Previous research in this sphere has been primarily related to traditional school subjects. The present results show that the pupils’ experience of their own competence focuses on much broader aspects of the learning process. Finally the thesis also elucidates different contextual aspects and their significance for experienced competence and learning.